Matthew McConaughey has an Oscar, an estimated net worth of $200 million and a career spanning more than three decades. But despite his success in Hollywood, the actor once decided to confront some of the harshest criticism he had received throughout his career. He collected two decades’ worth of negative reviews in a thick book, took it to the West Texas desert and spent two days reading them.The unusual exercise, which took place around 2018 or 2019 while he was writing his memoir Greenlights, helped McConaughey understand an important distinction: some criticism stems from personal dislike, while other feedback can offer valuable lessons about one’s work.Speaking on the October 13 episode of the Build or Break podcast, hosted by Kind snack food brand founder Daniel Lubetzky, the 56-year-old actor opened up about the emotionally challenging experience and explained how it changed his approach to criticism.
Matthew McConaughey spent two days reading his worst reviews
During the conversation, Lubetzky asked McConaughey how he ensures that criticism of his acting performances does not affect his self-worth. The actor responded by recalling how he once gathered 20 years of negative reviews and immersed himself in them.McConaughey joked that he believed the critics who had written positive reviews were the intelligent ones before explaining the exercise.“I read every one. All the negative reviews — I’m sorry, not all the positive reviews, the negative ones,” he said. “And I sat, and it’s all I [did], I spent two days with them. It was hard.”The actor explained that reading the reviews together allowed him to recognise the difference between criticism motivated by personal animosity and feedback that genuinely assessed his performances.“Some of the reviews, what I learned, is that from the very first sentence, ‘Oh, this person has it out for me.’ It didn’t matter whether they saw the movie or not. They just don’t like me. They were going to write a negative review,” he said.
‘This person’s got a point’
Not every negative review, however, was something McConaughey could dismiss. Some critics, he realised, understood his work but felt that his performances had not achieved what he intended.“Other reviews I saw, I was like, ‘This person’s got a point. They’re actually a fan of mine, and they didn’t get from my performance what I was actually hoping they would have got. Where did I fail in the choice?’ Because this is constructive criticism,” he explained.He added that such reviews helped him identify areas where he could have performed better.“This person is a good critic. They were looking at the work and objectively criticizing it. Applauding some things, but also applauded some things that shined a light on where I came up short. Okay. What can I learn from that?” McConaughey said.The actor’s takeaway was that criticism should not automatically be accepted or rejected. Instead, it is important to determine whether the person is genuinely evaluating the work and offering something useful.“Some are going to write bad about you and wish you the worst no matter what, because they just don’t like you from afar and don’t like your success, what have you,” he said. “Some are really a good critic who will write constructively about what you did wrong, and you can learn from it.”
Matthew McConaughey on the difference between acting success and personal validation
McConaughey has been acting on screen since 1993, when he made his feature film debut in Dazed and Confused. His filmography includes projects such as A Time to Kill, Contact, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Lincoln Lawyer and Interstellar.Over the years, he has also spoken about deliberately stepping away from romantic comedies to pursue more dramatic roles. In the late 2000s, he took a 20-month hiatus from acting as part of a career shift that eventually became associated with the period known as the “McConaissance”.During the podcast conversation, the actor reflected on how fame changed the way people responded to him. Before becoming a Hollywood star, he said, praise and affection were more directly connected to how he performed his job and conducted himself.“Before I became a ‘movie star’ or ‘celebrity,’ everything that I had done in life or was measured upon or got a hug for or was told ‘I love you’ for or was told ‘Hey, you did that wrong,’ was measured off of how I did the job,” he said.However, he found that success in Hollywood could bring a sudden flood of admiration that was not necessarily connected to the quality of his work.“And Hollywood, a successful weekend, all of a sudden these people ‘I love you, I love you, I love you,’ and champagne coming,” he recalled.McConaughey continued, “I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, what’s your name again?’ I’ve only said ‘I love you’ to four people in my life and all of a sudden everyone is saying it. Wow, this place is great, or is this place kind of heat-seeking?”His experience helped him recognise how difficult it can be to distinguish genuine feedback from the reactions that come with celebrity and commercial success.
What is Matthew McConaughey working on now?
McConaughey most recently appeared on the big screen in The Rivals of Amziah King, released in August, marking his return to theatrical releases after his last such appearance in 2019.He is also set to appear alongside close friend Woody Harrelson in Brothers, an Apple TV series featuring dramatized versions of the two actors as themselves.
